Word: commanders
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Pentagon has fallen into a "goldplated mousetrap" of always holding out for the final, supremely costly "last 10%" in technology that might give a weapon an unconquerable edge in battle. Even some military officers agree with this criticism. Says retiring Major General Volney Warner, chief of U.S. Readiness Command: "We have been captives of technology. There is always some development promised tomorrow that we ought to hang on to a weapons system, so that system stays out there ten, eleven, twelve years being perfected and meanwhile we are stuck with old and ineffective weapons...
...ammunition. The Pentagon comptroller's office estimates that the Air Force alone is short around $4 billion worth of spare parts; that is a major reason why 40% of the 563 U.S. F-15 fighter planes are unable to fly at any given moment. Even the Strategic Air Command, all of whose bombers should be ready to take off instantly, has a lengthening backlog of undone maintenance work. The Army's antitank gunners have so little ammunition that they can fire only one live round a year in training exercises. There are no figures for how far the Reagan budgets...
...Whitney's F-100 aircraft engine, for example, has lengthened from 19 to 38 months in the past two years. Experts warn that the industry does not have the capacity to build arms at the pace that Reagan wants. General Alton D. Slay, head of the Air Force Systems Command, told Congress in December that "even if we go all out for mobilization of our resources," the U.S. "would not begin to see significantly larger numbers of planes flying for at least three years...
...clearly slipped into anarchy. Then the new government unleashed what its own officials called its "dirty war." Plainclothes squads roamed cities by day and night, dragging off suspected subversives in unmarked cars. The government fought terror with terror, allowing cells of gunmen to act independently of any central command-and thus out of control...
...building a miniwarehouse is only about half as expensive as constructing an apartment building, which can cost $40 or more per sq. ft. to put up. But demand for storage space is so strong that rates per sq. ft. often very nearly match the yearly rents that apartments themselves command...